A liquid crystal display of transmission type comprises a liquid crystal cell and two polarizing elements placed on both sides of the cell. A display of reflection type comprises a reflection board, a liquid crystal cell and one polarizing element in this order.
The liquid crystal cell comprises a pair of substrates, rod-like liquid crystal molecules and an electrode layer. The rod-like liquid crystal molecules are provided between the substrates. The electrode layer has a function of applying a voltage to the rod-like liquid crystal molecules. Each of the substrates has an orientation layer, which has a function of aligning the rod-like liquid crystal molecules. Since the rod-like liquid crystal molecules are placed between the orientation layers, the alignment of the liquid crystal is easily controlled by the orientation layers.
An optical compensatory sheet (phase retarder) is often provided between the cell and the polarizing element to enlarge a viewing angle of the display. The optical compensatory sheet has another function of removing undesirable color from a displayed image. A stretched birefringent film has been usually used as the optical compensatory sheet. An optically anisotropic element has recently been proposed as an optical compensatory sheet in place of the stretched birefringent film. The optically anisotropic element comprises a transparent support and an optically anisotropic layer.
The optically anisotropic layer comprises aligned liquid crystal molecules that are aligned and polymerized while keeping alignment. The liquid crystal molecules are aligned by one orientation layer provided between the transparent support and the optically anisotropic layer.